Everyone knows that politicians are merely muppets, controlled by financial and corporate interests, injected into an anachronistic legacy represenational system designed to give the person on the street some sense of nominal control over day-to-day events. And while bankers control the flow, production and cost of money, without some means of converting labor (someone else’s) into capital (their own), all the money in the world would be for nothing (and the myth that debt is wealth would be extinguished). Which leaves one true controlling agent: Corporations, or as they are better known by the Supreme Court: “ [2]people [2].“

Which is why, for all those curious who really calls the shots, below we list the top 10 corporations by market cap over the past 20 years. While the landscape has changed at the very top, the premise has not. Looking to find who has been truly in control over the past two decades? Look no further.